Various Artists | True Soul: Deep Sounds from the Left of Stax

Now-Again (2011)
By ZETH LUNDY  |  July 12, 2011
4.0 4.0 Stars

True Soul: Deep Sounds

Soul hounds love deep, obscure shit — the deeper it is, the more obscure it is, the funkier it is, the more Southern it is, the better. So if you've already pricked up your soul-hound ears, dig this: Now-Again's two-volume compilation spotlighting the Little Rock, Arkansas label True Soul is a cratedigger's delight. Spread across two CDs and two DVDs is a vibrant document of a forgotten scene, ripe with funky 45s and turntablist fodder — wicky-wah guitars, butter-smooth flutes, big bari saxes, tight drum patterns that many would rightly kill for. A plethora of old photos, discographies, and Eothen "Egon" Alapatt's extensive liner notes are worth the price of admission — but dude, the music. Albert Smith's Wes-Montgomery-after-one-too-many-Js cover of "Come Together," Ren Smith's head-nodding anti-ode to air pollution ("Smog [Full Version]"), the lose-your-mind funkiness of York Wilborn's Psychedelic Six, and Thomas East's many silken soul-pop jams are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. While Now-Again is gunning for Reissue Label of the Year (True Soul is sandwiched between compilations of Indonesian psych-funk and pre-revolution Iranian psych-rock), this stuff is clearly intended to last you a booty-shaking lifetime.
  Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Arkansas, R&B,  More more >
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